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Topic: Be careful driving home from a gig |
Eric Philippsen
From:
Central Florida USA
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 8:28 am |
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The other night we finished up a gig in a small town and I was driving home about 1:00. At the edge of town I got pulled over by the police. The officer said that he stopped me for "throwing lighted material from a moving vehicle." Of course he asked and I truthfully answered that I had nursed a beer throughout the job that night. So, next thing I know I'm doing a roadside sobriety test. I passed and the officer and his partner did not appear pleased. But he ticketed me anyway for the cigarette butt - $125.
Yep, that did it. Reason enough to quit smoking. But the point is that police and their towns rely on ticket fines. With the decrease in night travel and certainly drunk driving arrests there's less revenue coming in. So, they are more "vigilant" for any possible infraction. Be smart. Obviously I wasn't. |
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John Ummel
From:
Arlington, WA.
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 8:52 am
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Yep, and make sure all your lights are in good working order,  |
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Cal Sharp
From:
the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 10:48 am
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Also, you might encounter one of these on the way home .... 
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 11:02 am
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| Barry Blackwood wrote: |
Also, you might encounter one of these on the way home ....
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Don't you just hate it when that happens?
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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James Morehead
From:
Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 11:33 am
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A few years ago in my area, someone threw a lighted butt out and caught the whole countryside up in fire. It was very dry conditions and a 50mph straight line wind for 2 days. The fire was traveling 40 mph across pastures. It was finally put out 2 miles from my house--which was in direct line. Many homes burned to the ground and barns and hay, let alone dead livestock. If they would have caught the sucker, they would have done a lot more than $125 fine. It's sobering to think we could have lost everything in our possession as well as possible life, let alone all we worked for for all our lives, just to have it go up in smoke because of someone so oblivious and inconsiderate to litter a cig butte. Many fires in our area, that winter, were started from smokers. Don't understand why they think it's alright to do that--throw lighted butts out of the car and litter. Must be too lazy to use an ashtray?
We don't see cops in our area writing ENOUGH tickets. Every day, someone passes ya by doing 30-40 mph over the speed limit. It's a matter of public safety.
So pay your $125 fine and learn from it. It may be a cheap lesson, if you take it that way. |
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Jeff Hyman
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 12:29 pm
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Driving is a privilege, not a right. The laws are meant to protect us, and the environment. Sometimes it takes a large fine to get a simple point across. Smoke all you want, just don't litter. Drink all you want, just don't get behind a wheel. As they say... the life you save may be your own.
PS: I'm no goodie-2-shoes. In my younger days I crossed that line more then once. Thank God no one ever was hurt. To this day, I remind my kids, each time I see them enter a car, to do the speed limit, drive defensive and all the other stuff us older folks tell the younger kids. Hopefully they listen. |
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Geoff Barnes
From:
Sydney, Australia
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 12:29 pm
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Same thing down under....we are a very dry nation with long hot summers... Many people lose their properties, lives and livestock due to bushfire.... not to mention the massive toll it takes on our native wildlife.
...every year.
...every summer.
...and our summer has just kicked in.
Many of these fires are caused by smokers throwing lit cigarettes out the windows of their cars.
The subject of cops and revenue raising is also a concern here and annoying.... but firestarters are another story altogether. 
_________________
Too much equipment....I think I need help. |
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Eric Philippsen
From:
Central Florida USA
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Posted 7 Dec 2008 1:26 pm
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| All of you are right. |
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Cal Sharp
From:
the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN
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Posted 8 Dec 2008 9:50 am
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The problem is that cops, unless you know them personally or have them on your payroll or have friends in high places, write tickets indiscriminately, whether you're a tax-paying law-abiding citizen or a career criminal. In Nashville cops lose their perks if they don't write enough tickets, and detectives are routinely pulled off homicide and rape cases and put out on the street to write tickets for broken tail lights. Read about it in the Nashville Scene.
_________________
C#
Me: Steel Guitar Madness
Latest ebook: Steel Guitar Insanity
Custom Made Covers for Steel Guitars & Amps at Sharp Covers Nashville |
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Jeff Hyman
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 9 Dec 2008 4:23 pm
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Cal,
It's a bad policy for cops to have a quota. Maryland stopped that practice. I believe the underlining intention is to have the cops have some accountability for their time, as many may hang out at donut shops, or do non related police work. The quota may work for the police captain, but unfair to the public. |
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Bill Bassett
From:
Papamoa New Zealand
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Posted 11 Dec 2008 6:31 am High Beams
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Those small town cops are looking for any excuse I can tell ya. I got pulled over late one night on my way home for failure to dim my high beams. Funny thing was, it wasn't the headlights at all, just all the gear I had crammed into my wife's little sedan that lowered the rear end so the headlights were shooting too high. (Never would have happened if the dang fuel pump in my truck hadn't gone out that afternoon.)
No ticket that night, but the other guys in the band passed me while I was sitting there with the cop car behind me, lights a flashing. Took a while to live that one down.
BDBassett
Rimrock AZ |
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Zeke Cory
From:
Hinsdale, New York USA
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Posted 11 Dec 2008 6:49 am From the OTHER perspective....
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| There comes a point where these ticket writing small town police officers can get a bit ridiculous. I guess I could call it the "Clint Eastwood" thing. I do think they should spend more time & effort getting drunks off our roads, criminals out of our neighborhoods, and so forth - things that matter. Your situation sounded like he was gonna get you for something, no matter how small or what it was. He just had to find it first. Seems like "To Protect And Serve" has kinda become "To Harass and Victimize" in some small towns. All for the sake of a buck. Thats very sad. Just my respectful opinion. Zeke |
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Marc Mercer
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 11 Dec 2008 7:48 am
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Big, big, BIG personal sore spot with me - PLEASE don't throw lit cigarettes carelessly around. Wildfires are frequently caused by this very action, sometimes resulting in loss of life and property, not to mention the cost to taxpayers and danger to firefighters. I tend to get upset at folks who shrug this off as a petty offense. Think about it: YOU'RE TOSSING BURNING EMBERS AROUND THE COUNTRYSIDE.
Mother Nature does a pretty good job of burning things up, she doesn't need help from any of us. |
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Joe Casey
From:
Weeki Wachee .Springs FL (population.9)
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Posted 11 Dec 2008 9:55 am
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Try driving on 301 in Forida and Waldo Fl. to be exact...Known all through the country as the biggest traffic trap around. You can be driving at 55 the limit and all of a sudden the sign says 35 and then the blue lights go on behind you.   There is no reduce speed warning.. |
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Cal Sharp
From:
the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN
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Ron Page
From:
Penn Yan, NY USA
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Posted 12 Dec 2008 9:33 am
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As a reasonably tolerant non-smoker-- one who voted against Ohio's onerous ban on smoking in public places-- the thing that bugs me about smokers is their propensity to toss the butts wherever. I’m not glad you are one who got caught, Eric, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a smoker toss a butt out the window an wished there’d been a cop around to write them up. Of course, it doesn't help that ashtrays in many vehicles have become an option rather than standard equipment.
On the upside, I sure am glad you passed the sobriety test. Just consider the fine a charitable donation at tax time. 
_________________
HagFan
Emmons Lashley LeGrande II |
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Joel Meredith
From:
Portland,Oregon, USA
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Posted 12 Dec 2008 11:09 am
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| Whenever I get a traffic ticket that I know that I'm guilty of, I take it to court no matter what. *BUT*, before I'm scheduled to go in, I'll call and re-schedule about two or three times (or as much as I can) and if it's a speeding ticket, I'll call several times and ask if they've recently calibrated the radar guns, etc...just generally tie up the system and annoy them and hopefully not make it quite as worth it to write so many tickets. |
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 12 Dec 2008 6:06 pm
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| Barry Blackwood wrote: |
Also, you might encounter one of these on the way home ....
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Heck I encounter 7-8 of these coming home most evenings around 5,
there's around 20 in the neighborhood going down to night pasturing.
Fortunately the drivers, mahuts,
do a better job than the one in this picture!
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.
Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many! |
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Keith Murrow
From:
Wichita, KS
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Posted 13 Dec 2008 11:34 pm
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*_*
Last edited by Keith Murrow on 28 Mar 2009 7:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paul Frank Bloomfield
From:
Greece
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Posted 14 Dec 2008 1:37 am Driving at night
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Hi guys,
Yep.it happens over here as well, a good friend of
mine was driving home after working at his restaurant
when he was pulled over by the police and asked if he
had been drinking to which he said he'd had a couple
of glasses of wine. they breathalised him on the spot,which proved positive,fined him 75 Euros and then told him TO DRIVE HOME CAREFULLY !!!! This is
Greece !
Merry Christmas to you all and, lets hope,for a happier New Year !
Cheers! Frank. Corfu
_________________
" The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you've finished "
ZBSD-10,ZB D-11/10, Franlin Tele,Epiphone customised Les Paul, 'Fender pro 185 amp. |
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Jerry Dragon
From:
Gate City Va.
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Posted 17 Dec 2008 8:24 am
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| David L. Donald wrote: |
| Barry Blackwood wrote: |
Also, you might encounter one of these on the way home ....
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Heck I encounter 7-8 of these coming home most evenings around 5,
there's around 20 in the neighborhood going down to night pasturing.
Fortunately the drivers, mahuts,
do a better job than the one in this picture! |
he has a chain around his neck, and it looks like Jersey plates, you would be ticked off also.
I never throw butts out the window and I keep telling my wife not to. |
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Fred Burkett
From:
Kingman, Arizona, USA
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Posted 17 Dec 2008 11:41 am
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As you know, (or maybe not) the American car manufacturer's, discontinued putting ash trays and cigarette lighters in their vehicles a couple of years ago. They thought (thought) this would discourage people from smoking in their cars.. NOT !!
So, unless you carry your own ash tray, I guess you could just stomp them out on the floor...
_________________
My formal name is "Fred" but, I've always been called "Rick". Peavey Sessions 400. Peavey Duel Delta Fex. Korg DT-1 Pro Digital Tuner. D2F covers. And proud to say that Chuck Back is my friend. |
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Rick Campbell
From:
Sneedville, TN, USA
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Posted 17 Dec 2008 12:28 pm
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| This is why you should always do your drinking on the way to the gig. Then, you've got the whole three or four hours to sober up before you start driving home, late night, when all the cops are out. |
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Fred Burkett
From:
Kingman, Arizona, USA
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Posted 17 Dec 2008 1:12 pm
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| Rick Campbell wrote: |
| This is why you should always do your drinking on the way to the gig. Then, you've got the whole three or four hours to sober up before you start driving home, late night, when all the cops are out. |
Makes sense to me!!!
_________________
My formal name is "Fred" but, I've always been called "Rick". Peavey Sessions 400. Peavey Duel Delta Fex. Korg DT-1 Pro Digital Tuner. D2F covers. And proud to say that Chuck Back is my friend. |
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